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Canada capitalizing on Olympic success to secure its soccer future

Taking advantage of the current wave of interest paramount for World Cup success

Canada’s women soccer players celebrate winning the bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games in August after defeating France 1-0.

Photograph by: PAUL ELLIS
, AFP/Getty Images

If anyone on the Canadian women’s soccer team was unsure about the significance of their Olympic medal, coming home from London has left no doubt.

It’s been felt in their everyday meetings with smiling strangers. With teary, emotional strangers — kids, moms, and, yes, even some dads.

It’s been felt in their public appearances — at their local clubs, at the Whitecaps game, and at the men’s World Cup qualifier in Toronto, where they simply ran out of time to reach all the fans who’d lined up for an autograph and a chat.

And if you’re Karina LeBlanc, Kaylyn Kyle, or Lauren Sesselmann, the sense that something’s just a little different was also crystallized in the Lacoste suite at the U.S. Open, and at New York’s Trump Tower with The Donald — who gave them watches — and, in Kyle’s case, a run-in with Zac Efron at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“We’ve felt it,” LeBlanc said recently on the TSN FC soccer podcast.

“And I think that it’s the beginning of something.”

Canada’s coach, John Herdman, is determined to see that it is.

But the challenge in front of him — in front of Canadian soccer — is perhaps far greater than winning a bronze medal, which was Canada’s first in a traditional summer team sport since 1936.

Herdman wants to change the game in this country. Real, lasting change. That takes a vision, and money, and will, and cooperation.

And coming off an Olympic medal, and with the 2015 Women’s World Cup on the horizon in Canada, there’s never been a better time to make the pitch.

“Unless we use the momentum at this stage, we’ll end up looking back and saying, ‘What happened?’ said Herdman. “That’s the biggest test for all of us now. Making sure we help this group of players succeed, yes, but at the same time making sure there’s another group sitting underneath it, and underneath them.

“This isn’t about the national team any more. It’s about the game in this country.”

COACH TURNS CAMPAIGNER

For the next four months, Herdman’s focus will shift from the field to the boardroom.

He’ll talk to associations and clubs and corporations and government. Coach-turned-campaigner.

Depending on the cycle they are in, the women’s budget hovers around $2 million, with Own The Podium contributing a massive chunk of that. The Germans, Herdman says, invest around $10 million in their development model.

He’d be overjoyed to hit around four or five million. With a little creativity, he believes Canada can emulate many of the best practices in Germany and Japan, where the best players are centralized with bright thinkers and top sport science teams.

“There are people out there who want to see the game grow,” Herdman said.

There have always been logistical and political challenges to creating an effective development pathway in Canada, but there are promising pockets.

Among them, Quebec’s Sport-Etudes program, a European model which affords talented high school athletes more training hours in a best-on-best environment.

And there’s cooperation in B.C., where the Whitecaps, B.C. Soccer and local clubs are working to bring elite players into more competitive environments more often.

A challenge in trying to implement core Canadian principles across the board is that each region is so different.

In Ontario, for example, there are countless clubs and private academies sharing the soccer space.

In New Zealand, he saw political barriers melt away after the men’s impressive World Cup run in 2010.

Certainly anyone who’s spent five minutes in a room with Herdman can’t help but be impressed by his intelligence, humour and passion.

In Canada, fundamental change might require a different approach in each region. It will certainly require a common grasp of reality.

Yes, that bronze medal is real, but Herdman’s the first to say he couldn’t believe France didn’t score that night.

“When a country is better than you technically, it’s the whole country that’s better,” he said, “and everyone should stand up and heed that.

“That’s a challenge to all of us at every level. We need to be very clear in the areas we can improve.

“Our players turning efficiency. Our ability to handle the ball in tight areas. To make proactive passes. One-touch passes. Cleverly-disguised passes in the final third.

“There’s a whole raft of things we can start being very clear on where the gaps are, and start to identify the training content that bridges that gap.

“People get fed up with opinions and ideas. People want to see clear plans that have been thought out and everyone can be a part of it, and that’s what I’ve got to try and do in these next four months.”

INFLUENCING NEXT GENERATION

Herdman is hoping to see a handful of players emerge from the current U20 and U17 groups and push for a World Cup place in 2015.

There’s also the U20 Women’s World Cup in Canada in 2014, and that’s a major focus, too.

A handful of current national team players will be around 32 or 33 by 2015: Sinclair, Candace Chapman, Rhian Wilkinson, Marie-Eve Nault, Kelly Parker, Melissa Tancredi. LeBlanc will be 35.

Some could retire. Based on positional needs, some might be coaxed to stay — though who needs much coaxing when you’ve got a World Cup on home soil?

“We know our average age can’t be 29 or 30,” said Herdman. “The magic number is 27, with a certain amount of international caps.”

Players will be encouraged to pursue the best possible professional opportunities out there — and that’s likely abroad — but Herdman also wants to be together, in Canada, as often as possible.

That’s a huge part of capitalizing on the Olympics, too. Being visible. Influencing the next generation. It’s something that’s been sorely lacking in recent years.

The Whitecaps’ new training centre at UBC will eventually be their part-time home, and the CSA says it’s committed to hosting international friendlies in the host cities for 2015, of which Vancouver is one.

Herdman said he’ll focus on scheduling “tier one” countries and perhaps sacrifice some FIFA rankings points in the name of stiffer competition.

“When I look at the last 10 years, we spend most of our time playing those tier two and three teams,” he said. “I think there’s a danger. You look at the cost, and those games give you very little.”

The national team has undergone a powerful transformation in the past year, emerging triumphantly from the disappointment of the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany.

Its fan base has been transformed, too. It’s grown, exponentially. People care.

But the future beckons.

Herdman needs central defenders who can play out of the back. Fullbacks who can attack and wingers who can defend. Midfielders with the technical ability to match their bite and forwards with that special something to unlock a defence.

He wants a conveyor belt of players who are comfortable on the ball, calm under pressure and crafty in attack.

“I think 2020 is when we’ll catch up to the modern game,” he said. “But 2015, we’ve got to be closer. We’ve go to look at winning a World Cup in our country.”

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